Oscar Best: Andrew Garfield

My friend Lorella has a disparaging nickname for him re: his face. It’s something to do with an animal, and I can’t remember the animal right now because I’m too tired, but I don’t disagree with her description the way Andrew Garfield looks in photos because, indeed, his is a tricky, unusual face to shoot, and he’s not conventionally attractive the way, say, someone like Armie Hammer is conventionally attractive, sure.

But then again Lorella hasn’t seen Garfield in person in a tux, the way it hangs off him, and the way he walks in it, the way his shoulders slouch slightly forward in a hot way that you can’t teach. I watched him for a while on that carpet last night and I’ve heard a lot about him this weekend and a lot of people think this kid has star quality, that they feel his star quality as soon as they meet him, and last night I saw some of that charisma; he seemed very comfortable out there, almost as though he’s been slowly easing his way into this life, and discovering that he’s not awkward and weird about it; that he can enjoy it in certain doses for what it is, and isn’t paralysed by self-consciousness or confined by deliberated dork-ness, unlike Jesse Eisenberg who claims he doesn’t computer, as a verb, or watch movies or television, and instead is writing a musical and collects old maps. Eye roll, please.

Anyway, Garfield’s longtime girlfriend Shannon Woodward was with him. She can be a dour looking girl when she doesn’t smile. Like, her resting face is a little bit of a misery face, you know what I mean? My ma says resting faces that are miserable make bad wives. I keep asking her when she repeats this, which is often – how can you help it??? It’s not fair to hold that against someone. And her answer is always unhelpful and, naturally, self-involved: “You lucky, see? Mommy give you good luck face.” It’s an interesting question though. Are you aware of your Resting Face? Think about it.